The agencies responsible for keeping travelers safe at Lindbergh Field said they are studying the deadly Los Angeles International Airport shooting from early this month and have asked police to be more visible at the downtown hub.

Amid a rekindled debate over airport safety, San Diego officials said they have not made major changes, such as adding more police officers or new security perimeters, noting the LAX shooting is believed to be an isolated incident.

Still, the debate over safety, and specifically over whether to arm Transportation Security Administration officers, was renewed following the Nov. 1 shooting. In that incident, a 23-year-old gunman is alleged to have carried an assault-style rifle into the airport, shot and killed one TSA officer, and wounded two other agency employees and one civilian.

Days after the shooting, the union president for 45,000 federal airport security agents called for the creation of a new classification of armed TSA officers.

John Pistole, the TSA’s administrator, has said he will review agency policies but hasn’t said whether he supports arming his employees.

Following the shooting, “officers were directed to be more visible at checkpoints and public areas to visually reassure the public that the airport is safe,” Tanya Castaneda, a spokeswoman for the Port of San Diego, which includes the Harbor Police, said in an email.

Brian Jenkins, an authority on terrorism and aviation security at the Santa Monica-based Rand Corp., said San Diego’s airport officials are correct not to overreact following the LAX shooting.

Airport shootings remain a rare event, Jenkins said, adding that no amount of added security will keep travelers safe all of the time.

“Any expectation of 100 percent safety is unrealistic,” he said.

There have been no shootings inside the terminals at Lindbergh Field, according to airport officials and a review of U-T San Diego archives.

Two people died in botched robbery in a park and fly lot near the airport on July 18, 1999. And bodies were found in trunks of cars in airport parking lots, in 1970 and again in 1994.

There are smaller measures airport security can take aside from adding officers or arming TSA employees, the security expert said.

Jenkins said police could make random vehicle and passenger stops outside the airport. They could also bolster the use of surveillance video.

Castaneda, the port spokeswoman, could not immediately say whether the Harbor Police make those random stops or whether video surveillance had increased.

George Condon, director of public safety for the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, which runs the airport and contracts with Harbor Police, said some security changes have already been made at Lindbergh Field following the shooting, though he declined to say what they are.

“We have been in contact with the team at LAX to hear their lessons learned, and will continue to discuss the issue with the TSA and Harbor Police. We have already made a few changes that will not impact the traveling public, but for security reasons, I can’t elaborate,” Condon said in an email.

“While the tragic incident at LAX is being reviewed, it doesn’t take a specific event for the airport to assess its programs—we’re constantly evaluating our security plans. It’s an ongoing, proactive strategy,” Condon added.

Figures for airport police staffing were also not immediately available this week.

Costly change

Adding armed TSA officers to the law enforcement mix at Lindbergh Field and airports nationwide could be a dramatic and expensive change, several outside analysts said.

Wendy Patrick, a business management lecturer at San Diego State University, said decision makers will have to weigh the financial cost of training the officers and whether the screeners are willing to take on the added responsibility.

“They are not law enforcement. That’s not the job they applied for,” Patrick said.

With relatively few airport shootings, the general public should ask whether more security is justified, she added.

A recent poll on U-T San Diego’s website, utsandiego.com, asked whether TSA officers should be armed. Seventy-five percent of the votes, or 1,239 responses, were against the idea.

Safety of screeners

J. David Cox, the national union president who called for creating a new class of armed transportation security officers, said in a letter on Nov. 7 the safety of agency employees was at risk unless changes are made.

“… thousands of (transportation security officers) are verbally assaulted and many others are physically attacked each year. In the face of such attacks, TSOs are left powerless to respond,” said Cox, who heads the American Federation of Government Employees. “If we are to bring an end to the violence against TSOs we need to develop a more effective deterrent to potential wrongdoers.”

Cris Soulia, past president of a local union that represents transportation security officers, said TSA employees at Lindbergh Field have discussed the idea of having a separate group of armed agency employees, noting there’s a “general concern” for their own safety even though the harbor police provide “a good presence.”

“Personally I do not think many (existing) TSOs would want to be armed,” Soulia said, noting he was not a spokesman for the agency. “While I own a firearm for home protection, I have no desire to carry one at work.”

San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond, who sits on the airport authority’s board and is a pilot for Delta airlines, said he favors arming some TSA workers.

Desmond said such a move would keep airports safer from anyone who wants to cause harm, including “terrorists who now know that (TSA officers) don’t carry guns.”